Review: Bob’s Burgers “FOMO You Didn’t”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Tina’s photography class final is coming up and she’s not in good shape grade-wise. That means she really can’t afford to have fun with her usual friend group at an abandoned house, but she really wants to anyway. When she manages to take a great photo with the help of Sosquita, Tina thinks she’ll be able to get her Half House party on… but Tammy has other plans. Meanwhile, Linda helps the previous home owner host a mini family reunion and Gene and Louise help Branca hide his secret shame.

Our Take:

We’ve had a good run of Bob’s Burgers episodes these last couple months, but that ends tonight with FOMO You Didn’t. Not that the episode isn’t good, it’s just that this is the last episode until the Christmas episode, and there’s going to be several weeks without new Bob’s from here on out. Is this week’s ep a good one to go out on? Yes and no.

The main plot centers around Tina and her usual friends and how they’re a bad influence on her. This is something we’ve seen time and time again, and recently I feel like Tammy, Zeke, Jimmy Junior, and Jocelyn have become less Tina’s friends and more like a disinterested group of kids she occasionally hangs around. There’s not much new or exciting in Tina’s part of the episode, unfortunately, although the little moments of film photography are kind of fun. I actually used a similar trick to Tina and did some creative cutting in one of my college photography classes, even though it wasn’t due to a ruined negative.

Gene and Louise have their own little side plot going on, but it also doesn’t feel that engaging. Branca is standing and cleaning the same spot everyday, so the two of them investigate. It turns out that he broke a ship while cleaning and has put a decoy in the case while he works on repairing the real one. But it doesn’t really go anywhere or serve any real purpose besides getting Gene and Louise something else to do besides tag along with Tina. I guess it’s sweet to see Louise covering for the custodian, but that’s about it.

Luckily, the third plot line was a lot more interesting to me. It’s all about Linda and her willingness to help out a family who needs a hand. Violet, one of the previous home owners, gets a tour of the current Belcher residence. She’s so entranced by the nostalgia that she keeps bringing more and more family members to see it. Pretty soon they’re recreating an old family photo in the Belcher living room, complete with moving everything around to how it looked then. Bob is curmudgeonly as expected, but even he gets a chance to assist in Violet’s mother’s 90th birthday surprise. It’s a neat way to bring some new life into an (at this point) very old and familiar location, and I loved the little relationships Linda formed with the previous owners.

While I enjoyed Linda’s part of this episode, I have to say that I think FOMO You Didn’t is probably one of the weaker episodes so far this season. Tina’s plot felt like a rehash of previous peer pressure storylines, and Gene and Louise’s addition didn’t really add anything of value. Thankfully the holiday episode is up next and those always get some extra love by the crew it seems like. In the few weeks we’ll be waiting, I’ll still be wondering: how the hell is Jocelyn getting As and Bs?